All about the

Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy Project

Purpose

The purpose of the Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy is to provide the people of the world with interactive access to the story of the wolves introduced into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
The goal of Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy is

1) to put online the lives, pedigrees and genealogy of Yellowstone wolves for access by all fans!

2) to provide an interactive, publicly accessible record of the wolves of the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction where fans can create their own posters and book albums.

3) To provide provide photographs and biographies for many individual wolves.

For the first time ever, Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy will allow enthusiasts to -

- access interactive pedigrees of the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction

- access the heritage and genealogy of individual wolves and their packs

- explore the bloodline of your favorite wolf including its origin and descendants

- produce their own posters and books showing wolf and pack heritage

- see images of many wolves

- read stories of individual wolves

The genealogy tree is for everyone enthralled with wolf restoration and wishing to know more about Yellowstone’s wolves. It will be your access to detailed information and histories. Your access to the future of wolf restoration on a continuing basis.

Never available before, this first of a kind, online visualization of wolves in the wild and their pack genealogies provides an unprecedented picture of wolf inter-relationships, their lives and their pedigrees.

Structure

Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy is composed of two web sites. An introductory web site known as Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy Online at WolfGenes.info. AT WolfGenes.info there is information on the project and updated information about the wolves. This web site provides a portal to access the second web site on Ancestry.com.

Access to the entire wolf genealogy is through Ancestry.com but Ancestry requires an invitation which is S through WolfGenes.info.

Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy is maintained by Jim Halfpenny and Leo Leckie with the help of volunteer editors and advisers who donate time to the project (see About tab).

History

This dynamic online project begins with the reintroduction of wolves to the Yellowstone Ecosystem in 1995 and 1996. Included are Canada and Montana parent packs with all known offspring. Photographs and biographies for many individual wolves are included.

Documentation of Yellowstone wolves for the public began in 1996 with the book, Discovering Yellowstone Wolves: Watcher's Guide (J. Halfpenny and D. Thompson). This book showed individual wolves and their packs including the history of individual wolves. Details about the first year of wolf life in Yellowstone along with maps is included. Also presented is information on philosophy of naming wolves, viewing opportunities and viewing etiquette. There are a sections on identifying wolves, wolf biology and ecology, and the history of wolf restoration.

Concurrent with Discovering Yellowstone Wolves was the beginning of the publication of the wolf chart by Jim Halfpenny and Diann Thompson. As the number of wolves increased and many federal, state, and tribal entities became involved the complexity of the charts became unwieldy. Thus chart production is now limited to one chart each year.

The annual chart is produced at the end of the biological year for the wolves, that is when the most wolves have died and new pups are not available for counting. This is the only biologically repeatable point in the annual life cycle of the wolves. The charts represent a MOMENT-IN-TIME look at wolves. Additional information is provided by the Fish and Wildlife Service in their annual federal report (https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/wolf-2016.php) and state reports produced at the end of the year.

As interest grew, wolf enthusiasts wanted previous charts and more information about the wolves. Thus in 2012 Charting Yellowstone Wolves (Halfpenny) was published to consolidate chart information into one location. Charting Yellowstone Wolves contains the first 46 charts (in the early years there were multiple charts produced per year). Included is additional information about the Canadian parent wolf packs.

Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild published in 2003 (Halfpenny) contains further information about the fates of the original introduced wolves and maps showing the spreading distribution of wolves within and outside Yellowstone National Park.

Procedures

To learn about the project and additional information about wolves, visit the general page of Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy Online which is available to all interested persons at WolfGenes.info.

Wolf Genealogy Tree:

Ancestry.com requires an invitation to visit the online Wolf Geneology tree. To obtain your invitation visit WolfGenes.info. Click on the Ancestry tab which provides information about available products, how to use ancestry and payment information.

The Ancestry tab also has information about ordering products. Several products are available through Ancestry.com including books and posters of pedigree charts, family trees and descendants of parental wolves. All ordering of products is done through a secondary vendor at Ancestry.com. Yellowstone Wolf Genealogy receives no money from the purchase of these products.

Donations:

We incur expenses to keep this web site up-to-date and stored on Ancestry.com. These costs will continue into the future. Donations to help defray costs may be made to A Naturalist's World, PO Box 989, Gardiner, MT 59030.

Examples

Now that several generation of wolves have been on the ground in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the genealogy showing family reltionships has grown quit complex. Presented here is a simple family tree of wolf 970F. Using Ancestry it is possible to create posters ad books showing complex family trees and geneologies of multiple packs. Go to Ancestry and explore the information about your favorite wolf.

Since wolves first placed their feet on the ground in the Yellowstone Ecosystem, there has been massive publicity with many articles, books and peer-reviewed journal manuscripts. The list is far too extensive to list here.

While we strongly support the role of education in wolf reintroduction, the sheer volume of inquiries and student projects overwhelms our ability to answer individual inquiries.

Therefore we must regretfully ask that those students interested in wolves do not send us emails requesting information or additional help. Those interested in wolves are encouraged to investigate the bibliography mentioned above.

Please go online to locate these and other resources. In particular we recommend the National Park Service webpage called Wolves in Yellowstone (http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolves.htm).